1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a computer program product.
2. Description of the Related Art
As networks such as a local area network (LAN) have become widespread in recent years, the shared use of print output devices such as printers, copiers, and multifunction peripherals by multiple users has become popular. For instance, one printer connects to a personal computer (PC) used by each of the multiple users via a network; and the printer prints out a document in response to a print output command received from each PC. At that time, the printer prints out the documents for the users in a mixed manner. If a document contains highly-confidential information, there is a possibility of information leakage; therefore, it is necessary to take information security measures.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-260023 discloses a printing system for information security measures in which, during group printing from a client device, a print job which has a header with multiple user IDs or a group ID added thereto is transmitted to a print server; the print server stores and manages the received print job corresponding to the user IDs or group ID; and if a user ID which is authenticated during user authentication performed by an authenticating device matches the user IDs or group ID, printing of the print job is allowed.
Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-217718 discloses an authentication print control device in which print job information is stored in association with a user; and after authentication is received from the user, a print job is output to a printing unit in accordance with the print job information which is associated with the user in response to a print command received from the user.
In the above-described Patent document, when a print job is transmitted on the user side, authentication of the user ID is performed; a transmitted print job is stored for each authenticated user; and a print output device again performs authentication on the user ID. Thus, printing can be performed by only the user who can receive a printed document so that it is possible for the user to definitely receive the document and so that it is possible to prevent the user from forgetting to pick up the document. Thus, it is possible to improve information security.
However, as a user who can receive a printed document is merely designated, a user cannot actively involve himself/herself in, for example, deleting a document to be printed. Furthermore, if there are multiple documents to be printed, there is a possibility that printing of an urgent document is held up because the order of priority for printing is not specified.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the foregoing. There is need of an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a computer program product by which information security during output of jobs can be enhanced and the jobs can be output in accordance with the priority.